Today was a fairly chill day in Riga. Liam did his usual morning run but Tom and I skipped the run. I had run 4 days in the last 7 and had done 20 miles. That is the most running I have done in months so thought a rest day was good.

We decided to go to the Riga Central Market to look around and get some authentic Latvian “street” food. The Central Market is housed in three old Zeppelin hangers. It is made up of produce stalls, meat vendors, seafood vendors, flower vendors and general merchandise stalls.

There was a large selection of smoked fish as this is a central part of the diet in the Baltic and Nordic countries.

After wandering around looking at the different market stalls, we hit the Gastromia Hall, the equivalent of an American mall food court. There were lots of vendors selling traditional Latvian food items. After looking at the various options, I settled on Latvian beer sausage with beet salad and French fries. I doubt French fries are native Latvian cuisine but that was what was served. Liam went for sausage, sauerkraut and boiled potatoes. Both Tom and Liam ordered two kinds of dumplings and we shared those and portion size was very large. It was fun to buy food and try it from food stalls rather than restaurants.

After wandering around the Central Market, we headed back to Old Town and wandered the streets. We found the oldest houses in Riga, built by three brothers. There is some kind of festival this weekend in Riga and there were lots of venues either set-up or being set-up. In front of the Oldest Houses there was a mini concert being performed by two men with brass instruments.

We walked along the old medieval city wall and found the Military history museum and explored the exhibits in the museum. It is very obvious the last 100 or so years have not been that advantageous to the Baltic nations. They were controlled by Imperial Russia prior to the First World War. Then each fought for independence in the post war period which meant more fight and death. They all seemed to have independence from about 1919 – 1939. Then they were invaded and occupied in 1939 by the Soviet Union with mass deportations of their citizens to Siberia. Then followed the German invasion in 1941, which brought more death and destruction along with the Holocaust. Almost 35,000 Jews were killed in Latvia alone. At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union reoccupied the countries and again had mass deportations. The Soviet Occupation lasted until the late 1980-1991 when most of the countries broke away from the Soviet Union and regained their independence. The countries have been part of the EU and NATO since 2004.

After visiting the museum we enjoyed some ice creams and then some coffee on our way back to the AirBNB to rest before we headed out dinner.

Tom had found a speakeasy called Bar Six. It is only open if the lantern is lit in front of a gate that enters into a courtyard. You dial 6 on the intercom and someone comes out to meet you at the gate. You then climb down a very steep set of stairs to get into the bar.

We tried a couple of good cocktails. The waitress was very engaging and gave us good recommendations for the cocktails. I stuck to Negronis, Liam had a gin drink and then a Mescal Sour. Tom was the adventurous one, choosing a drink that was recommended that supposedly tasted like a child’s candy (the candy was served with the cocktail. He then had a Mescal Sour as well.

Our dinner choice for this evening was off plan, we opted to try an Italian restaurant that was recommended by Krisjana called Snatch. It was on the main see and be seen street in Riga. Lots of people out just to be seen. There was a bright green McLaren parked in front of the restaurant that garnered lots of attention.

We had Valpolicella (which is from the Verona area of Italy, it is described in the Italy portion of the blog) for our wine. For starters, we had burrata with asparagus and pesto and Stracciatella cheese with eggplant and grape tomatoes.

Tom and I had Veal Picatta and Liam had Grilled Sea Bass for mains. Both were excellent.

We called it an early evening as Liam is heading off to meet his family and visit Jersey, the Normandy beaches and other WWII sites. Then they are going to Paris. Liam and his father are also going to Lourdes. We are going to overlap slightly in Toulouse so I might see Liam before I head home.

Tom and I are continuing our Baltic exploration as we are heading to Vilinius, Lithuania.